ANSWER: Nontraditional/Anarchist Families in Fiction

In response to the query: Anarchist or alternative families in fiction, there are many, many Utopian, science fiction and novels with characters that hew close to what I think you are looking for. I've tried to limit my choices to books or movies about families in anarchist or socialist communes, but I've also thrown in some of my favorites about gay, alternative or nontraditional families. There are no sources to cite; I dug through our catalogue and brainstormed with colleagues. For the films I dug around in the Internet Movie Database (us.imdb.com) and received tips from fellow Radical Reference members. I hope others will add many comments and additions to this useful list!

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

I've listed books first, then movies, and then one book of criticism you might find valuable.

Books

Adams, Hazard. Home: A Novel. Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Edward Williams, a historian interested in Utopian communities, researches one called Home, near Tacoma. The author, a professor, lived near the real community of Home, an anarchist commune founded in 1894 which collapsed in 1920. Although the commune is the center of the novel, it is also about Williams' squabbles with his University, a thinly-veiled University of Washington.

Banks, Iain M. Consider Phlebas. London: Macmillan, 1987.
---. The Player of Games. London: Macmillan, 1988.
---. Use of Weapons. London: Orbit, 1990.
---. Excession. London: Orbit, 1996.
Including this series of science fiction novels is a bit of a stretch, but they do come up when you reference anarchism in fiction. Banks wrote this series about a civilization called the Culture, who seem to live a fairly anarchic existence, their needs cared for by huge intelligent space colonies called orbitals. The arch-enemy of the Culture is the Empire, still stuck in their capitalist, nation-state ways. Sound familiar? The author has a little screed of his own about the Culture:
http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm

Callenbach, Ernest. Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston. Berkeley CA: Banyan Tree Books, 1975.
---. Ecotopia Emerging. Berkeley CA: Banyan Tree Books, 1981.
When I read these novels at Berkeley (where they were written) I was more than a little irritated that the boundary of Ecotopia, the Utopian nation formed on the West Coast, was north of Santa Barbara. Such arrogance, I thought, that the economic and culture engine of the coast, Los Angeles, would be excluded. And what about Vancouver and Tijuana? A country formed around Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, I decided, would be a dull one indeed. But anyway, the first novel was shaped by California attitudes of the early 1970s; I doubt you could find anyone now in Washington or Oregon willing to link their destiny to California's. Many of the ideas in these novels are rather prescient, although we still haven't (yet) planted a nuclear weapon in Washington DC. In the first novel, reporter William Weston travels to Ecotopia in 1999, the first American to be allowed since Ecotopian independence in 1980. In between detailed reports on different aspects of Ecotopia's economy and society, Weston's diary entries show that he is beginning to like what he sees. The second novel is a prequel, describing (not very well) the events leading up to the secession of Ecotopia in 1980, rather odd as the book was published in 1981.

Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent. London: Methuen & Co., 1907.
You didn't think I could forget this gem, did you? The anarchist family that plays together stays together, as is so tragically proven when, thanks to the "Professor", M. Verloc accidentally blows up his brother-in-law, but his wife Winnie teaches him a harsh lesson in return.

Dixon, Thomas. Comrades. New York City: Grosset & Dunlap, 1909.
Just after the Spanish-American War, dashing Norman Worth, son of wealthy Colonel Worth, joins the Socialist movement with his adventurous sweetheart, Elena Stockton. They form a Utopian commune on "Ventura Island", off the coast of Santa Barbara. Sadly, the commune goes awry when Communist Herman Wolf moves in and imprisons young Worth. This novel is a hoot, and includes many references to actual California Socialists of the period, such as Madame Modjeska and Henry Sienkiewicz.

Duberman, Martin. Haymarket: A Novel. New York City: Seven Stories Press, 2003.
A colorful dramatization of the tragic true story of Lucy and Albert Parsons, a rare interracial couple who helped build the labor movement in the 1880s...until Albert was one of five "anarchists" executed following the Haymarket Riot of 1887. The book is full of other characters central to socialism and free living in the Victorian US.

Gerrold, David. The Martian Child. New York City: Forge, 2002.
While David Gerrold (best known for writing the "tribble" episode of "Star Trek" and my fave, the "Land of the Lost") could hardly be considered an anarchist, there is definitely something nontraditional about the family in this barely-fictional novel, which describes the adoption of a very wild eight-year-old boy by a aging gay science fiction writer.

Glassgold, Peter. The Angel Max. New York City: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1998.
Max Kraft, a Russian Jew, emigrates to New York and builds a successful real estate empire; with the "geld", he supports a growing Socialist cause. His half-brother is a follower of Malatesta, while his two stepsisters are "soldiers of Kropotkin", which makes for a heady brew. I haven't read this one, but it looks like a very interesting and panoramic look at the highly politicized Jewish community in Manhattan around the turn of the last century.

Hogan, James P. Voyage from Yesteryear. Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1982.
This is a fun one; at the end of the 21st century, World War III (or IV or V or whatever) winds down, leaving America a "near-fascist" state. The Americans set off to re-establish contact with a space colony on Alpha Centauri, sent jointly by America, Asia and Europe many decades earlier. What they find is not a colony awaiting rescue, however, but a group of people living in relative luxury, with no interest in the Earth, who have eliminated racial prejudice, the market economy and (wow) the English system of justice. The book rants a bit, but the rambling arguments between the Americans and the colonists make for some heady material. See Russell's "The Great Explosion" below.

Home, Stewart. Blow Job. New York City: Serpent's Tail, 1997.
Steve Drummond, the leader of Class Justice, thinks he has control over London's anarchists. Swift Nick Carter doesn't agree, and his band of punks starts a war with the fascist fringe in the housing estates of inner-city London, a war which rapidly escalates and makes the parties in conflict hard to distinguish. Some people might be sorry to see me include this book (Home is a controversial author to say the least), but it is what it is.

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. New York City: Harper & Row, 1974.
This was the second book I thought of in response to this question (the first was "Comrades", listed under Dixon above, one of my favorites.) The title refers to Dostoyevsky's novel "The Devils" (which in Russian was titled "The Possessed"), a bitter attack on the anarchists of his period. After the death of anarchist philosopher Laia Odo in the fascist state of AIO, her followers start a revolution all across the planet Urras. They eventually settle on a neighboring planet, Anarres, and create one of the most realistic Utopian communes in fiction (or, for that matter, reality.) Only one fence exists on Anarres...the one around the spaceport, keeping the rest of the Universe at bay. A physicist, Shevek, decides to be the first to cross the fence and try to mend a bigger fence with Urras. Like all of Le Guin's work, this is a great, great book, and one of the best on this subject.

Mattison, Alice. The Book Borrower: A Novel. New York City: William Morrow, 1999.
In the mid-Seventies, Toby Ruben and Deborah Laidlaw meet in a New Haven park with their children. Although often contentious, they become good friends, and Deborah gives Toby a book, "The Trolley Girl", about three sisters involved with a 1921 trolley strike. Over the next twenty years, the book and its subject, an anarchist sculptor, weave in and out of their friendship.

Newman, Lesléa, and Diana Souza (ill.) Heather Has Two Mommies. Los Angeles: Alyson Wonderland, 1990.
Anarchist? No, but I've fought off too many challenges to this picture book, about a preschooler with lesbian parents, not to include it in this list.

O'Hehir, Diana. The Bride Who Ran Away. New York City: Atheneum, 1988.
Grace Dowell grows up in French Ford, a Utopian Socialist community founded a century before in Northern California. Grace is engaged to her cousin Steve, but doubts about him and her eccentric family cause her to run away to Nevada. Another confused member of the commune, David McCracken, comes after her, and together they make the trip into adulthood. Cute.

Oppokov, V.G. Lev Zadov: Smert'ot Beskorystiia, Povest'o Makhnovtse-Chekiste. Petrozavodsk: Rudi-Bars, 1994.
I can't read Russian, but apparently this is a top-notch book about Lev Zadov, a Ukrainian anarchist murdered (along with 20 or 30 million other Ukrainians) by Stalin in 1938. Zadov was in charge of intelligence-gathering for Nestor Makhno, the leader of the anarchist revolution in the Ukraine. For those who don't know, the anarchists had a nice uprising as well as the Bolsheviks; Makhno fled to Paris when the filthy Russians (sorry, my Ukrainian is showing) forced the country into the Soviet Union.

Reynolds, James. Equality, or, A History of Lithconia. Philadelphia: Prime Press, 1947.
This novel was first published as a serial in "The Temple of Reason" during 1802, and then published as a regular novel in 1837. One source I found says this is the FIRST Utopian story published in the US. The story describes in some detail a commune where all property is held in common and money doesn't exist.

Russell, Eric Frank. The Great Explosion. New York City: Dodd, Mead. 1962.
This is a classic of Utopian sci fi, and unlike so much Utopian fiction (although not sci fi) it is rather funny. The "great explosion" begins when interstellar travel becomes possible, with humans leaving the Earth in every direction to do all sorts of odd human things. A few centuries later, an Earth ship is sent out to visit these colonies and try to reunite them under the Earth flag. One planet is full of criminals, the next, full of nudists (!) The last planet is populated by anarchists, who refuse any order the Earthlings give them. A classic.

Severance, Jane. Lots of Mommies. Chapel Hill NC: Lollipop Power, 1983.
An adorable children's book about Emily, a six-year-old being raised by five women in an unusual commune. The author also wrote "When Megan Went Away" in 1979, still one of the few good books for children about lesbian "divorce".

Taibo, Paco Ignacio and Martin Michael Roberts, tr. De Paso [Just Passing Through]. El Paso TX: Cinco Puntos Press, 2000.
The author is a well-known leftist and mystery author in Mexico. Here he writes about Sebastian San Vicente, a Spanish anarchist who flees the US for Veracruz in 1920. San Vicente becomes the secretary of the CGT, a radical labor union, but is eventually deported back to Spain. The story is told only from the perspective of people around the mysterious San Vicente, and is a good primer on the history of radicalism in Mexico before World War II.

Verney, John. Ismo. New York City: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964.
ISMO is an anarchist movement (and after this book came out, a 'zine). This is the third in a series of books about the Callendar family, a very nontraditional English family who like politics with their adventures..."Spy Kids" take a hike. In this title, the very independent family explores Italy and hunts down a group of art forgers.

Willhoite, Michael. Daddy's Roommate. Los Angeles: Alyson Wonderland, 1991.
The companion volume to "Heather Has Two Mommies". A young boy relates how, after his parents' divorce, his father has a new companion: Frank. A much more comforting tale than the oppressive reality, says this nephew to a lesbian who went through hell in this country.

Woodson, Jacqueline. The House You Pass Along the Way. New York City: Delacorte, 1997.
Young Staggerlee comes from an unusual family; her mother is white, her father black, and she is a budding lesbian...and they live in the South. Uh oh! Seriously, a great book about a teenager with far too many "grown up" prejudices in her face.

Movies

La Ciudad de los Prodigios. Dir. Mario Camus. France 3 Cinéma/Institut del Cinema Català/Société Française de Production, 1999.
Based on a novel by Eduardo Mendoza (Catalan title: La Ciutat dels Prodigis), this movie follows the life of Onofre Bouvila, who seeks his fortune in Barcelona during the 1880s. He falls in love with Delfina, an anarchist, and helps her cause until he decides that maybe making loads of money is more fun. Barcelona was a hotbed of political activity during this period.

La Commune: Paris, 1871. Dir. Peter Watkins. 13 Productions/La Sept-Arte/Le Musée d'Orsay, 2000.
There are plenty of films about the Paris Commune, my favorite being the 1930s Russian propaganda version (Zori Parizha). But this one is unique, with Watkins filming on the streets of Paris and using anarchists, socialists, and their enemies as actors in a television documentary, who often step out of character to relate the experience of 1871 to modern France.

Easy Rider. Dir. Dennis Hopper. Columbia Pictures Corporation/Pando Company Inc./Raybert Productions, 1969.
I hate to belabor the obvious, but the first time I ever saw a commune (other than a real one up the street from our house in Laurel Canyon) was probably in this film. "'Cause I'm from the city, a long way from the city, and that's where I want to be right now."

Eat the Rich. Dir. Peter Richardson. Channel Four Films/Iron Fist Motion Pictures/Michael White Productions, 1987.
Sorry, but I had to throw this gem in the list, which features the founder of IRS records Miles Copeland, one of the Beatles and every British comedian you saw get big in the 1990s. A gay waiter fired for his attitude returns with a vengeance, taking over the restaurant with his friends and feeding the clientele to the new customers. If that ain't anarchy I don't know what is.

Flashback. Dir. Franco Amurri. 60/80 Productions/Paramount Pictures, 1990.
But it was a piece of crap, you say! Sorry, but if you're looking for films about the politics of the 1960s and communal living, this tripe about an FBI agent who grew up on a commune hunting down a legendary activist (Dennis Hopper again) fits the bill. Besides, Hopper utters the (later proved incorrect) legendary quote: "The Nineties are going to make the Sixties look like the Fifties."

If... Dir. Lindsay Anderson. Memorial Enterprises, 1968.
Mick and his friends attend a stiff British boarding school; unlike their fathers, when they decide to break the rules, they do so with gusto. If you wonder what this film has to do with anarchism, you've never seen it.

Jonas Qui Aura 25 Ans en l'An 2000 [Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000]. Dir. Alain Tanner. Action Films/Citel Films/Société Française de Production/Télévision Suisse-Romande, 1976.
A group of people living on a communal farm in Switzerland reflect on their successes and failures as the 1970s grind on, and vest their hopes for the future in a young boy (who is now pushing 30!) "Big Chill" eat your heart out.

Zéro de Conduite [A Zero for Conduct]. Dir. Jean Vigo. Argui-Film, 1933.
This is the inspiraton for "If". A pair of bored schoolboys tear their boarding school to bits.

Criticism

Porton, Richard. Film and the Anarchist Imagination. New York City: Verso, 1999.
This book will help you find more films to your liking. Enjoy smashing the state, couch potatoes!